An opening voiceover promises that this is a different kind of origin story, one not about “tall handsome guys struggling with the burden of being handed even more power” or asking “what made this hot chick go crazy?” In practice, however, this one feels plenty familiar, invoking the likes of Riverdale in its archness, Veronica Mars in its prickly crime-solving heroine and most especially its HBO Max sister show Harley Quinn in its gleeful irreverence - all shows that, whatever their shortcomings, enjoy a much stronger sense of identity and purpose than Velma does.įor every solid crack (“Ranking hot girls is exactly how the Trojan War and Facebook started!”), there’s an observation that feels like a repurposed Twitter draft from some harried screenwriter’s folder. ![]() Here, the iconic slacker is presented as Norville (Sam Richardson), a clear-eyed band geek who tells Velma, “Man, if I even think about getting into 420, 420 culture or especially 420-related humor, kill me.” (The pair then clarify that 420 is “code for adults who still watch cartoons.”) And the humor is delivered by an enviable roster of comedy actors: Glenn Howerton rounds out the main quartet as Fred, a helpless rich boy with daddy issues, and even minor roles are filled by the likes of Weird Al Yankovic or Nicole Byer or Stephen Root.īut Velma‘s insistence that it’s not like other shows grows thin over the season’s ten half-hour episodes (eight of which were sent to critics). The series is equally playful about lampshading its much-discussed choice to race-swap its characters, or winking at Shaggy’s pothead reputation. “Have you ever noticed how pilot episodes of TV shows always have more gratuitous sex and nudity than the rest of the series?” Daphne blithely notes, before getting into a naked shower fight with a fellow hot girl over whether Riverdale can be both self-referential and sexy. ![]() ![]() This comedy is so extravagantly self-aware that it’ll tweak its own self-awareness within the very first minutes of the premiere. Initially, Velma‘s ironic approach is amusing, in the way that a string of clever tweets calling out overused tropes is amusing. Velma truthers can rest assured the show wastes little time addressing speculation about whether its protagonist might be gay, and, if so, whether she might be in love with Daphne. ![]() Complicating matters further are the raging adolescent hormones that send the kids lurching from one crush to another. At its start, Velma (voiced by Mindy Kaling) is an awkward teen outcast still haunted by the disappearance of her mother Diya (Sarayu Blue) some years earlier - to the extent that thinking about it too hard conjures life-threatening, and rather strikingly animated, hallucinations.īut her interest in the case revs back up once Crystal Cove High is hit by a string of murders that may or may not have anything to do with Diya’s absence, but definitely put the prettiest, most popular girls in town - like Velma’s BFF-turned-nemesis Daphne (Constance Wu) - at risk. Cast: Mindy Kaling, Constance Wu, Sam Richardson, Glenn HowertonĬreated by Charlie Grandy, a veteran of The Office, The Mindy Project and Saturday Night Live, the adult-oriented animated offering is positioned as a prequel to the Scooby-Doo stories we know and love so well.
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